Some personal favourites of mine were Amat and Benji, but the beauty of the story is that it celebrates how everyone is different – and I’m sure every reader will connect with different characters and situations explored here. I have to admit that I didn’t love all the characters in this story, but there are definitely some strokes of brilliance. “Sometimes that’s what it takes, a culture of silence to foster a culture of winning.” There’s one thing that underpins this community: hockey – like it or not, they all have it in common, but they all carry their own secrets and differences too. It was a little difficult to keep up to start with, but the author takes his time laying the foundations introducing the town and a whole host of residents and the passion they all share. The author introduces a whole host of characters, from the club coach, manager and president to the parents and the children who dedicate most of their lives to succeeding at the sport. In the first part of the novel Backman takes his time setting the scene I could almost feel the ice cold temperatures, and the claustrophobic single-mindedness of the secluded town with one shared goal. “Sometimes the entire community feels like a philosophical experiment if a town falls in the forest but no one hears it, does it matter at all?” And the town is literally obsessed with the sport they sleep, eat and breathe it – it’s their only chance to become more than they are to put Beartown on the map. It’s got little going it for, except for hockey.

This refreshing, emotional read was a huge change of pace for this author tackling some meaty topics, but in my opinion he’s completely pulled it off.īeartown is a small, somewhat isolated town in the Swedish forest. But after seeing so much hype, I went for it. I received Beartown i n exchange for an honest reviewīackman’s huge hit A Man Called Ove didn’t blow me away and I’m not really a sports fan, so initially I wasn’t sure about tackling this hockey-focused story.

Beartown backman